


Wodorosty Mózgu

by kristimoon



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Multi, Polish!Annabeth, foreign exchange students
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-30 19:45:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8546716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristimoon/pseuds/kristimoon
Summary: Percy has always wanted to take a part in Olympus Academy's famous foreign exchange program; but he expected to be paired with someone clueless about America, who barely knows English, and who'd be willing to follow his example.  Instead he got Annabeth Chase, who takes no shit from anyone and follows her own rules.  This was going to be a long semester.





	1. The First Day

"Who figured out the quickest way to solve the proof on the board?"

Percy looked down at his notebook.  It certainly wasn't him, since his thought process took up most of the page and he considered using "a miracle occurred" as a legitimate reason for one of the steps at one point.  The fact that Mr. Brzezicki had explained proofs in a way he could understand didn't help at all.  Or maybe geometry just sucked and his dyslexia and ADHD were adamantly trying to convince him of that fact.

A duck appeared outside the window of the second floor classroom, and Percy was distracted until a small tap was placed on his shoulder, followed by, "Percy, we have to discuss the proof together."  Percy reluctantly looked over at the person occupying the desk next to him, a freshman named Malcolm.  Malcolm looked at his "attempt" to solve the proof, and started shaking his head.  "It's like this," he said, and started writing on an open page of his notebook.  He drew a flow chart of sorts, and the proof made a lot more sense.  "Just write your proofs like that," Malcolm said, "and it shows how the statements connect and help prove what needs to be proven."  "But, seriously," Percy replied, "when are we ever gonna need this in life?"  "I don't know.  I don't even like geometry that much, so I'm surely not going for a career that focuses on it," Malcolm said.  "Same, I liked algebra a lot better even though I wasn't very good at it." 

       "Percy," Malcolm asked, "have you been getting enough sleep lately?"  "Yeah," Percy said, "why'd you ask?"  "You just closed your eyes and made a little noise, that's all."  After Malcolm finished speaking, the door to the classroom opened, and a girl with green hair walked in.  She walked over to Mr. Brzezicki and handed him a small piece of paper, then waved to Will Solace (who was across the room) and left.

        "Percy Jackson," Mr. Brzezicki said aloud, "it seems you are wanted at the counselor's office."  Percy then gathered his stuff and walked out of the classroom.  Thank god he had an excuse to leave the boring world of geometry!  But, then again, he might be sent to the counselor's office for something much, much, worse.

He got to the counselor's office, and walked up to Ms. Beauregard, the secretary.  "Yeah," Percy said, "my math teacher sent me here, so..."  "Oh yes, Percy Jackson," Ms. Beauregard said, "to the left and in the room at the end of the hall."  He walked into the room Ms. Beauregard described, and found his counselor, Mr. Brunner, seated at his desk with a girl Percy didn't recognize across from him.  The girl looked about his age, with long curly blonde hair and pale skin.  Percy got the feeling she wasn't from New York by looking at her.

"Percy," Mr. Brunner said, pushing his wheelchair towards him, "This is Annabeth Chlebek.  You'll be helping her adjust to Olympus Academy this semester.  You two have mostly the same classes together, but for the classes you don't have together, I'll give you passes so you can show her around without worrying about being late."  Percy sighed, good thing he wasn't in trouble.  Besides, he'd always wanted to help out with Olympus' famous ambassador program.  Annabeth stood up from her seat and held her hand out towards Percy.  "Cześć."  she said.  She definitely wasn't from New York.

* * *

 

After they were excused from Mr. Brunner's office and the bell rang, signifying the end of first period, Annabeth and Percy started walking toward Percy's locker, which would also be Annabeth's locker until they found her a new one.  "So," Percy started, not knowing what to say, "do you, um, speak English?"  "Yes," Annabeth replied, "I can speak English almost as well as you can.  My father taught me in Warsaw."  "Where is Warsaw?" Percy asked.  Annabeth started to look a little irritated with Percy and said, "Warsaw is the capital of Poland.  Poland is a country.  In Europe."  "Geez, I didn't know that," Percy said, "but I did know where Poland was."  "Maybe I'd be a little less rude to you, if you were less rude to me," Annabeth explained, "asking me if I speak English after I was polite enough to greet you in my native language.  For your information, I also speak Czech, Slovak, Russian, German, and French.  Stupid Americans, always expecting everyone to know your language and not bothering to learn anyone else's!"  Percy was stunned at what she said, not only because probably she accused him of being a xenophobe, but also because she had a point.  "You're right," Percy said.  Now it was Annabeth's turn to be stunned.  "I really was being a hypocrite.  Just so you know, my mom's half Mexican, and I do know a little bit of Spanish."  "I don't know Spanish yet," Annabeth said, "I could probably pick it up pretty quickly from the French I know."  "Lucky for you," Percy said, "we have that class next."

* * *

 

The rest of Percy's classes passed by rather quickly, until lunch came by.  Lunch was easily his favorite time of day, not only because it wasn't a class, but also because he got to see the best people in the world--the demigods of Olympus, at least the ones in his lunch period.  They were comprised of his closest friends, and their closest friends, or just awesome people in general.  If you had a hard time at Olympus, it was guaranteed that one of them would help you.  And Percy was the one who started it all.

Until he was about 12 years old, Percy lived under an abusive stepfather.  After he died of alcohol poisoning, he couldn't bear to see anyone being hurt ever again, and unfortunately, since he went to a public middle school in New York city at the time, he saw it often.  So he consulted his best friend Grover, and they started an unofficial club that was dedicated to helping people find good friends.  They enlisted the help of Thalia Grace, who was then an eighth grader, and Will Solace, a cheerful kid their age who was very excited to help them.  The group expanded over the years, adding Thalia's brother Jason when he moved in from California, Will's cousin Kayla, an unlikely candidate named Clarisse La Rue, and the resident pranksters, the Stoll brothers.  Once Percy and Grover graduated eighth grade, they decided that since they had helped so many people during middle school, that 1. they should definitely continue this in high school, and 2. that they should have a group name.

After an emergency meeting of the group, which at this point had also included Nico di Angelo, an Italian transfer student, Piper McLean, the daughter of a once popular actor, and Ethan Nakamura, a Japanese transfer student.  They debated a lot over what their group name should be, until they decided on the demigods of Olympus, since they all were going to Olympus Academy the next year.  And the rest was history.  At least until lunchtime of today, when Annabeth Chlebek would be added to the group.

He walked over to his lunch table, a circular table in the middle of the cafeteria, which consisted of prominent members of the demigods of Olympus, Grover Underwood, Piper McLean, Frank Zhang, Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, and Leo Valdez.  "Lookie here," Leo said, "Percy's brought us new blood."  "Who's this, Percy?" Grover asked, looking up from his plate of enchiladas.  "This is Annabeth." Percy said, getting out his lunch from his backpack and sitting down in his usual spot.  "So, Annabeth," Piper said, "we have a sort of tradition here at our humble lunch table.  You have to lead us in the national anthem."  Percy expected Annabeth to stutter or insist that she didn't sing, which is what most people who were brought to their lunch table would've done, but she didn't.  Instead she sang in a soft voice, "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, kiedy my..."  "No, no, not that one"--Piper started giggling uncontrollably--"the American one, sing the American one."  Annabeth started to look at Piper confusedly, saying, "I don't know it."  "Ok, just repeat after me then," Piper replied, standing up from the table so she could face Annabeth, "O, say can you see,"  "O, say can you see,"  "By the dawn's early light,"  "Okay, Piper," Will interrupted, "that's enough singing lessons."

Annabeth sat in the only empty seat at the table, which was in between Will Solace and Frank Zhang.  She reached across the table to tap me on the shoulder.  "I don't have anything to eat."  she whispered.  "Here," Percy said, getting another paper bag out of his backpack, "my mom and my stepfather accidentally made me two lunches.  I'll show you how to buy lunch tomorrow."  Annabeth looked at the sandwich and various snacks in the bag confusedly, but reluctantly started to eat them.

"Hey, you never told us where you’re from, did you newbie?"  Leo questioned.  "Yeah," Piper agreed, "I need to know the country responsible for the cutest accent I've ever heard."  "I thought I had the cutest accent you've ever heard," Nico said, looking away from Will's attempts to make him laugh.  "No, Nico," Piper said, "you have the sexiest accent I've ever heard.  There is a difference between cute and sexy, although one can be both of those things."  "Thanks," Annabeth said nervously, "and I’m from Poland.  Could you tell me all of your names?  I recognize some of you, but not all of you."  They went in a circle and said all their names, and Annabeth started telling an interested Will and Nico about her life in Poland.  "Is it true that they have an entire festival for a dragon in Kraków?"  Will asked.  "Yes, they do," Annabeth said, "but I've never been to it.  I've always lived in Warsaw with my dad and cousin, until he got accepted into a boarding school in Oslo."  They talked like that and Percy listened for a few minutes, until Leo started to get his attention.

"Dude," Leo said, "Frank needs your help, like real bad."  "I do not!" Frank protested from his seat beside Leo.  "Yeah you do, you're just in denial."  Leo told Frank.  "So, there's this girl named Hazel..."  "Oh," Piper interrupted, "is it the Hazel that just moved here from Louisiana?"  "Yeah, that Hazel," Leo said, "anyways, Frank really likes her, I mean really likes her, and he can't find the guts to talk to her."  "I have an idea," Grover said from beside Percy, "there's this carnival going on this weekend, you invite her there and win some prizes for her and see where it goes."  "That's a great idea," Percy said, "we should all go to the carnival."  He turned toward Annabeth and tapped her on the shoulder.  "You interested in going to a carnival?" he asked her.  Annabeth nodded her head and bit into one of the blue cookies that came with her lunch.  After she finished the cookie she immediately asked Percy for the recipe.  "I don't have the recipe, but I can ask my mom for you." he said.  "Dziekuje," she said, picking up another cookie.  Percy ate the rest of his sandwich in silence until the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

* * *

 

"So," Percy's mom, Sally, asked, "how was school?"  "It was good," Percy said, "I got an A on my Spanish quiz."  "That's great, Percy," Percy’s stepdad Paul, said, "but did anything really eventful happen today?"  Nothing much, Percy thought, just boring geometry, guiding Annabeth around school, eating lunch with my friends, oh wait, they don't know about Annabeth.   It seemed like a few days ago Mr. Brunner introduced us.  "I started guiding this girl named Annabeth around," Percy said.  "Oh really, where's she from?" Sally said, "Texas, Chicago, California..."  "Poland."  Sally and Paul looked at him, impressed.  "Does she even speak English well?" Paul said, breaking the silence.  "Yeah, she does," Percy said, "and she chewed me out for asking her that, too."  "I already like this girl," Sally said, impressed.  "Oh yeah," Percy remembered, "she wants your cookie recipe."  Sally smiled, "And I'll be happy to give it to her."


	2. The Carnival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy, Annabeth, and the demigods of Olympus go to the local carnival.

The carnival was in full swing when the demigods of Olympus arrived.  The smell of funnel cake, hot dogs, and various other overpriced foods was everywhere.  Percy felt comfortable in his loose blue t-shirt, black jeans, sleek new Converse (a birthday gift from Paul), and silver snapback.  As he looked for a place to park Paul's Prius, he saw Reyna Ramirez-Arellano's pickup truck parked in one of the spots.  It was an amusing sight, because the tiny space could barely engulf the huge truck.  But it was also a good thing that he saw her truck, because it means Piper did what he said and invited her girlfriend (and hopefully, also her boyfriend Jason) to their outing at the carnival.  The other demigods had been contacted at some point between the other day and today, and the only people who had declined were Will ("It's my first day shadowing for my mom at the hospital, can't miss it.") and Nico ("I'm visiting my sister at her school in Italy.  She has a few pieces in an exclusive showcase and she really wants me to be there, and the flight is a day before the carnival.").  

Percy also saw Leo and Frank getting out of a minivan at the entrance a few minutes earlier.  He finally found a spot to park, and made a plan in his head to save a table underneath the huge central tent and gather everyone invited there.  Percy began to wonder about Annabeth, mostly about how she was supposed to get to the carnival.  He hadn't even bothered to ask her who she was staying with!  Annabeth probably thought he was a lousy helper, too.

And then he saw Annabeth getting out of an old-fashioned car not far from where he was parking.  Percy quickly put his car in park, unbuckled his seatbelt, and nearly jumped out of the car.  "Woah, Perce," a voice said from behind him, "what's the rush, man?"  He turned around and saw Jason Grace standing behind him, with Piper and Reyna on either side of him.  "Let me guess," Piper teased, "you saw Annabeth in the parking lot.  Just admit you have a crush."  "For the record," Percy retorted, "I do not have a crush.  I simply want to make Annabeth feel welcome."  "These two wanted the exact same for me when I moved here from San Juan," Reyna said.  "You're not implying what I think you're implying, are you?" Percy said.  "Oh you know I am."  "Well, stop implying it!"  "Over your dead body."  "What are you guys talking about?"  Annabeth snuck up behind Percy and regarded Jason, Reyna, and Piper.  "Oh just the weather," Piper said, "Reyna thinks it's gonna rain as Percy gets to the top of the Ferris wheel."  "Ah," Annabeth said, "I didn't notice any change in air pressure."  "What are you, a barometer?" Jason joked.  "I know all those words except the last one."  Annabeth stared at Jason blankly, adjusting the collar of her dress.  "A barometer is what you'd use to measure air pressure," Percy said.

"I know how it feels to not be perfect at English," Reyna said, walking toward Annabeth, "If anyone gives you any shit for it, talk to me about it and I'll kick them in the culo."  "Oh," Annabeth said, "are you also an exchange student?  Where are you from?"  "No, I'm not an exchange student," Reyna replied, shaking her head, "I moved here with my sister a couple years ago from Puerto Rico."  "Where's Puerto Rico?  I'm sorry if that bothers you, I'm not very good at American geography, that's one of the reasons my dad told me to come here."  "Puerto Rico's a small island in the Caribbean.  And no worries, I've had people say much worse when I tell them I'm from there."  Reyna and Annabeth talked back and forth like that while they walked toward the carnival's entrance, making Jason and Piper irritated.  "Dude," Jason said, clenching his teeth, "you better start trying to win her over before she steals my girlfriend."  "What Jason said," Piper added, also clenching her teeth.  Luckily, for the sake of Percy's dignity, Annabeth saw Frank standing by one of the carnival games with Leo after they all paid for unlimited ride wristbands, and immediately went up and started chatting with him, leaving Reyna to return to her significant others.

Percy walked over to the carnival booth, where Leo was trying to throw darts at balloons attached to the wall, muttering, "Daddy needs a Charmander plushie, Daddy still isn't sure why."  Meanwhile, the person running the booth was trembling as Leo threw the darts with much more force than necessary.  Percy wanted to go into the booth and give that poor man a hug, because Leo could really be terrifying when he was motivated to get something, especially since that was the only time he could get his ADHD under control.  Thankfully, Leo ran out of darts, and turned toward Frank and said, "Bro, give me one more dollar."  "No way, I need to save some money if I'm gonna win a Bulbasaur for Hazel," Frank protested.  "But I want a Charmander," Leo replied, "and remember bros before hoes?"  "Don't degrade women like that," Annabeth said, interrupting their argument, "it's not nice to refer to them as gardening tools."  "They're not talking about gardening, Annabeth."  They all turned toward the man behind the booth, who had somehow known Annabeth's name and was able to listen to their conversation over the noises of the carnival.  "Toris," Annabeth said to the man, "Feliks didn't tell me you worked here!  Then again, he was probably too concerned on dropping me off as 'fabulously' as possible."  "Well, you know Feliks," Toris said.

"Oh," Annabeth said, stepping toward Percy, "this is Percy.  He's been showing me around Olympus."  "Hello Percy," Toris said, "it's very nice of you to show Annabeth around.  It's good that she has friends from this area, I remember when I came here from Vilnius, I made friends with two other exchange students who were just as nervous and confused as I was, which caused us to get in a lot of tricky situations."  Percy then decided that it was rude not to join in the conversation, so he said, "Nice to meet you too.  How do you and Annabeth know each other?"  "I'm staying here with his boyfriend, Feliks," Annabeth answered, "my father was good friends with his parents before they moved to America."  Toris then started muttering about getting in touch with someone named Eduard and another person named Raivis when Leo walked up to the edge of the booth and slapped a twenty on the edge.  "I found this in my pocket and even though Frank ditched me to pursue his sweetheart I'm gonna play till I win and you can keep the change because you know Annie."  "Please don't call me Annie," Annabeth groaned, "I'm not a redhead."  "Okay, then," Toris said, starting to shake again, "I'll get you more darts."  "Swag." Leo said.  "Tip: don't repeat any of the slang Leo uses," Percy whispered to Annabeth, "he's been stuck in 2010 for at least 6 years."  As Toris gave the darts to a hungry-eyed Leo, he told Percy and Annabeth, "There are some pretty cool rides, if you look around."  "Thanks, Toris!" Annabeth said, grabbing Percy's arm and dragging him in the direction of the carnival rides.  "First, we should try finding some of the others." Percy advised, leading Annabeth towards the large crowds milling around.

They soon spotted Grover getting out of one of the food truck lines, holding a large plate of colorful enchiladas.  "Hey guys," Grover said, through a small mouthful of enchilada, "I have a table, follow me."  They followed him under the large tent in the center of the carnival, toward a table near a small stage where a band was playing.  Several people were already seated at the table, including the Stolls, Lou Ellen, Cecil, and Clarisse.  "So, this is Annabeth, eh, Percy?" Travis Stoll said, before picking out a cheese fry from the tray in his hands.  "Yes, this is Annabeth." Percy gestured toward Annabeth, who waved shyly at the new people.  "Are you sure you should be wearing something that professional to a carnival?" Lou Ellen commented after a short silence.  Percy glanced at Annabeth's outfit; more casual than her usual blouses, blazers, and pencil skirts; which consisted of a white shirtwaist dress with a thin, shiny black belt and black flats.  "But I like dressing like this," Annabeth said, confusion registering on her face.  Lou Ellen looked at Annabeth stunnedly.  "Okay, then, you do you."  "I see you've passed Lou Ellen's self-confidence test," Piper said from where she suddenly appeared next to Annabeth.  "We saw Frank and Hazel getting on the Ferris Wheel together a few minutes ago," Jason said from his position behind Piper, massaging her shoulders, "and we also saw Leo furiously playing a carnival game and scaring the poor worker to death."  "He's still playing that game?" A freshman named Harley walked up to their table and set his stuff down on a chair.  "Yep," Percy told him, "and last we checked, he gave the worker a $20 so he could win a Charmander."  "I'm worried for his bank account," Reyna said, after sitting next to Clarisse with a tray of cheese fries.

Percy decided to get some food from the trucks after some time of complaining about school, taking Annabeth along.  "What looks interesting to you?" Percy said.  Annabeth pointed to a food truck that looked to be selling hot dogs nearby.  As they walked closer, Percy could see that the food truck was serving food from Mickey's Hot Dogs.  He loved Mickey's Hot Dogs, he always used to go there with his mom to watch football games when Gabe was alive.  Gabe always had violent reactions whenever one of the players would make a mistake, and this often resulted in Sally being hit, though Percy didn't find out about that until much later.  They also had killer fries.  "What can I get for you?" The lady at the counter asked them with a smile, though it showed that she was exhausted from running the truck all by herself.  Annabeth ordered a Polish hot dog, but Percy knew it was mostly to find out what it was, and Percy ordered a sloppy joe and fries for both of them. 

As they waited for the lady to prepare their food, an older man started yelling at the lady to hurry up so she could get his order down.  Percy hated when people did this, he probably would've treated her like crap even if she worked like the Flash.  He especially hated it because this man looked to be about 60 or 70, and he somehow hadn't figured out how to be nice to people.  Annabeth seemed to be even more irritated at the man than Percy was, since she said "Thank you" to the lady in a very loud voice so the man could hear.

When they got back to the table to sit down and eat their food, they found Frank sitting next to Jason with a girl Percy didn't recognize, but thought must've been Hazel.  She had poofy hair loosely tied in a ponytail, chocolate brown skin, amber brown eyes, and wore a brightly colored sundress.  "Annabeth," Hazel said, momentarily distracted from her conversation with Frank and Jason.  "Hazel, good to see you here," Annabeth replied, cutting into her Polish hot dog with a spare set of plastic silverware on the table.  "No, no, dearie," Hazel said in a slight Southern drawl, "you pick it up and take bites into it, like this."  She stood up and grabbed and imaginary hot dog and started "eating" it.  "American food is so strange," Annabeth said, putting aside her silverware and picking up the hot dog.  "I know," Hazel said, "it was weird enough switching from Louisiana food to New York food, but I can't imagine switching from another country."  "True," Frank said, "I think I'm going through Tim Horton's withdrawal."  "And the nearest In-N-Out is in Texas," Jason added.  "O lamentable day!  Why Texas?!" Piper said, leaning dramatically against Jason.  "Most of the fast food places in Poland are available here, though I've never had a Polish hot dog before," Annabeth said, before taking a bite of the hot dog.  "Oh, that's just a Polish sausage in a hot dog bun," Piper said, "blatant cultural appropriation if you ask me."  "O lamentable day!  We've lost one of our own to the social justice warriors!" Percy said, mocking Piper.  "You know I was joking," Piper said, "if you want to talk about actual cultural appropriation, come talk to me."

"Hey, Frank," Hazel said, looking toward the area where most of the carnival rides were, "the line for the Tilt-a-Whirl is a lot shorter than it was earlier, let's go on it!"  "Um, okay," Frank mumbled as Hazel pulled him to his feet.  Once they were both standing, Percy saw that Hazel was a lot shorter than Frank, which was very cute.  He wished that Frank and her could be happy together, because they clearly made each other happy.  Just as they left the tent, Leo came running in, holding a Charmander plushie, whooping and hollering.  "So, buddy," Jason said, "was it worth it?"  "HELL YEAH IT WAS!" Leo said, setting the Charmander down on an empty chair.  "What are you going to do now?" Piper said, standing in front of Leo and pretending to hold a microphone in front of her like a news reporter.  "I'M GONNA CATCH 'EM ALL!  GIVE ME MORE MONEY!" Leo yelled, turning back toward the carnival games before Reyna tugged on the back of his shirt.  "Nope," Reyna said, "you are going to eat some fries and calm down."  "You can't tell me what to do," Leo protested as he was led back toward the table.  "Yes I can," Reyna retorted, "in fact, I just did."  "Dang it," Leo said, sitting down with his Charmander in his lap, picking a few fries off Percy and Annabeth's plate.

As Percy and Annabeth ate their food, they talked about their lives.  Annabeth asked him about his mom and stepdad, and he told her that his mom was pregnant and due in several months.  "If you don't mind me asking," Annabeth said, "what happened to your real dad? You mentioned having two stepdads, and you said one of them died when you were 12, so..."  "Oh, my real dad died when I was a baby," Percy said, assuring Annabeth that he wasn't bothered by the question, "he was a marine biologist and was studying somewhere and got caught in a tsunami."  "Oh," Annabeth replied, "I lived with my dad in Poland, my mom left when I was very young, and I have a cousin on his side named Magnus.  He's going to a boarding school in Oslo."  "That's in Norway, isn't it?  Has he seen any singing ice queens yet?"  "No, you silly.  He does tell me he's looked for trolls, though."

They talked like that until their meals were long gone and they had gotten bored.  "Let's go on one of the rides," Percy said, standing up.  "I don't know," Annabeth said as they walked into the area where most of the rides were set up, "most of these lines look pretty long."  "The line for the Zipper isn't, let's go!"  Percy grabbed Annabeth's wrist and ran toward the empty line for the Zipper.  He showed the man running the ride their wristbands and got into the small curved capsule with Annabeth behind him.  The door in front of where Percy and Annabeth sat closed, and Annabeth said, "I've never been on one of these before."  "It's basically a hardcore Ferris Wheel," Percy said, "you'll love it."

Then the ride started, and Annabeth grabbed the bars in front of her for dear life and muttered something in Polish.  From the way she said it, Percy thought it must've been a prayer.  But he didn't think for much longer, because then the capsule lurched backward and they flipped over for the first time.  Annabeth yelled something in Polish, and it definitely wasn't a prayer.  The rest of the ride went on similarly to that, Annabeth cursing in Polish, Percy screaming in delight, occasionally getting each other's hair in their mouths, and then the ride was over.  They were helped out of the capsule by the man running the ride, then as Percy walked past the line, which was much longer than it was when he'd gotten on the ride, Connor Stoll mouthed, "Go get some." at him, while his brother Travis made a thumbs up.  Percy was getting tired of people thinking he had a crush on Annabeth.  Sure, she was good-looking, but he didn't like her in that way.  Besides, they'd just met a few days ago.

But, Percy still liked being around Annabeth, and wondered if there were more ways to spend time with her outside school.  Hanging out at his house and having her meet Sally and Paul seemed like too much, but he didn't want to just constantly go to carnivals, as fun as they were.  He got an idea as they were walking back to their table to rest for a few minutes.  "Dude," his friend Grover clapped him on the back, "good job introducing Annabeth to the world of American carnival rides."  "Yeah, I think she had fun," Percy said, looking over at Annabeth, who looked like she was going to puke up her Polish hot dog in a few minutes.  "I heard she swore a lot," Grover said, "Clarisse and Chris were on the ride at the same time you guys were, and they heard her cursing in Polish."  "Yeah, she was pretty loud.  I think I should get her to teach me a bit of Polish.  It sounds like a cool language,"  Percy replied.  "Dude, are you sure?" Grover said, "With your dyslexia I'm not sure if it'll be easy."  "Annabeth has dyslexia too," Percy said, "I'm sure she'll be able to teach me at least some basic phrases."  "You do know Polish is a bit hard to learn, right?  Even for a neurotypical person?"  "It'll be fine, I trust Annabeth is a good teacher."

The sun set, and as the carnival wound to a close, Annabeth asked Percy to give her a ride to Feliks's house.  "His friends don't think he's sober enough to drive."  Annabeth said after she got into the passenger side of Percy's Prius.  "I'm guessing Feliks likes to party," Percy said, trying to start a conversation.  "Yeah, he likes drinking with his friends a lot."  They didn't speak much when Percy was driving, other than Annabeth telling him where to turn.  Percy pulled into the driveway of a large house with many cars already pulled into it, and as Annabeth got out of his car, he said, "We should hangout more often."  When she looked at him confusedly, he said, "I mean, maybe you could start teaching me Polish on the weekends."  Annabeth nodded.  "Sounds like fun."


	3. Lazy Sunday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Literally just a filler chapter with Percy and Annabeth texting back and forth.

_ Download Duolingo, select the Polish course, do a couple lessons this week, and I'll explain the more complicated stuff to you on Saturday. _  The text from Annabeth came as Percy was cooking blue pancakes on Sunday morning.  He was tired, and sick of the greasy carnival food from the night before, so cooking always put him in a better mood.  It often looked terrible, but it was delicious, and that was the important part.   _ cool, will do that as soon as i'm done cooking breakfast.  how is your morning? _  Percy decided texting Annabeth back while he waited for the first batch of pancakes to be ready for flipping was a good idea, since he didn't want to be rude to her.  After all, he was the one who suggested they get to know each other better.   _ Terrible.  Feliks woke me up at the crack of dawn to help him shop.  His favorite store always has the most inconvenient times for their big sales. _

_ we certainly live different lives.  i just woke up 10 minutes ago. _

_ Lucky you.  You have no idea how hard it is to tell between coral and salmon at five in the morning. _

_ i don't even know the difference between those colors at five in the afternoon. _

_ I think salmon is lighter and more on the pink side than coral, which is more orange.  My eyes hurt.  Feliks usually asks Toris to do this, but he's sleeping off a stomachache.  Leo really stressed him out. _

_ i'll be sure to tell him that.  feliks sounds harsh. _

_ He's okay, just eccentric.  You'd probably like him if you ever met him. _

_ idk.  he seems really into clothes.  maybe he'd judge my obsession with blue. _

_ He'd probably think you were the second coming of Christ, with how much you wear it.  He can't pull off blue if his life depended on it. _

_ but seriously, what kind of store has a sale at five a.m. when it isn't black friday? _

_ It actually starts at seven, but Feliks gets there the same time the manager does so he can take his time and pick out clothes before the huge wave of customers get there. _

_ what kind of manager lets customers in right when they get there?  my mom used to work in retail, and her boss would chew her out if she ever did that. _

_ Feliks and the manager, Francis, have been friends for a long time.  They understand each other's obsessions with clothes. _

_ it seems like feliks knows a lot of people around town. _

_ He does.  He's also really good friends with the family who runs the Italian restaurant on Main St. _

_ wait, are you telling me he knows the vargas's? _

_ Yeah he does.  We've been going there a lot lately. _

_ nico knows the twins in the family, apparently they lived in the same neighborhood in italy or something. _

_ I didn't know that!  I'll have to mention that I know him to Lovino or Feliciano next time I go. _

_ they'll probably just pester you with questions about bianca. _

_ Why would they want to know about Nico's sister?  Wouldn't Nico tell them everything they'd want to know? _

_ they're both in love with her or something.  they're also unaware that she's out of their league. _

_ You're so funny, Percy. _

_ you have no idea. _

At that point, Percy decided to put down his phone, because the pancakes were almost done and it was a miracle he'd been able to flip them before they burned.  Most of them were lopsided, anyway.  There was even some miniscule burnt pancake mix drops on the griddle.  The squirrels would have a field day trying to get to them.

Percy got out the syrup, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup from the various cabinets in the kitchen.  It was a good thing that Sally and Paul weren't home, because Sally would've scolded him on the amount of sugar, and Paul would've just laughed and called it "diabetes on a plate".  For good measure, and because they were delicious, he added some strawberries atop the huge stack of blue pancakes.  It looked like a work of edible art, so he decided to take a picture of it and send it to Annabeth.

_ these are my morning percy-cakes. _

_ Do you eat like that normally? _

_ no, just on special occasions, like when my parents aren't home. _

_ It sure looks like the kind of breakfast for special occasions. _

_ they also taste like a special occasion. _

_ Feliks was reading my texts over my shoulder and he thought the pancakes were a really thick three layer cake. _

_ you just gave me an idea. _

_ What is it? _

_ i'm gonna put pillsbury frosting on the pancakes next time. _

_ Percy, for the sake of your health and general well-being, please don't. _

_ i'm gonna do it, and no one can stop me. _

Percy dug into his pancakes, putting his phone on silent to avoid the messages he was bound to get from Annabeth in a few minutes.  He was kidding about putting frosting on his pancakes, even sugar had its limits.  Besides, it would probably work better with waffles.  He wasn't even bothered by Annabeth being worried about his health, since he was getting increasingly comfortable with her.  Comfortable enough to confess his unhealthy habits.  He couldn't even do that with some of his older friends.  Now, if he sent Piper the picture of his pancakes, things would get ugly quick.  Ugly as in he'd be unable to eat anything but quinoa and whole grains for a year.  That ugly.

As Percy neared the bottom of his pancake stack, a particular text from Annabeth caught his attention.

_ Feliks wants your "cake" recipe.  Says it'll be perfect for a wedding.  Wonder what he was implying. _

God, even Annabeth's friends wanted the two of them together.  This was going to be a long semester.


	4. Everyone hates Mondays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just an ordinary day at Olympus Academy.

As Percy walked to his locker on Monday morning, he was greeted by a very anxious looking Annabeth.  "Where have you been?" Annabeth panted, "I was starting to get worried!"  Oh, crap.  He'd forgotten to explain late start Mondays to Annabeth.  "Shit," Percy said, "I forgot to tell you that school doesn't start until 9 on Mondays."  "It's okay," Annabeth sighed, "I was more worried that I was late."

"And it's a good thing I found you, because I have a question for you," Percy said, "why are there multiple versions of the same word in Polish?"  "Oh those are language cases," Annabeth replied, "English doesn't have any, but most other languages do.  Polish only has seven, but some others have a lot more."  "But how do I know which one to use?" Percy asked.  "Oh, I'll explain that on Saturday," Annabeth said.  Percy started walking in the direction of his locker, and motioned for Annabeth to follow him.

They were sharing a locker until a suitable one was ready for Annabeth to use.  Neither Percy nor Annabeth liked this arrangement very much.  Percy didn't like the fact that Annabeth knew his combination, and Annabeth... "How the hell does anyone find anything in this?  And what's that smell?"  "That's definitely the guy next to me," Percy said, attempting to defend himself.  "B.S.," Annabeth replied.  "Besides, it's not even that bad."  "Maybe to you it isn't."  "These are the smells of America, Annabeth.  Get used to it."  "Do I hear wedding bells?" Leo teased from where he appeared behind them.  "No!" Annabeth and Percy said simultaneously.

When Percy looked back at Annabeth, she had a bit of a blush.  Maybe people were giving her a hard time about them, too.  Percy actually wouldn't mind dating Annabeth, she was pretty, and smart, and well-dressed, and pretty, and had nice hair, and... Percy snapped out of his thoughts just in him to hear Annabeth reprimanding Leo for stressing out Toris.  "He had a stomachache for the whole weekend!"  "Hey, it's not my fault," Leo said. "Actually, it is," Annabeth said, "did you even see him shaking behind the counter?"  "Yeah, but I was more focused on getting my Charmander."  She then decided that at this point there was no arguing with Leo, and continued trying to find her books in Percy's locker.

"Hey," Hazel, who'd just walked up next to Leo, said, "do any of you know where Frank is?"  "I think I saw him near the gym," Annabeth said, pulling out her books from where they sat under a mound of Percy's stuff.  "Thanks, Annabeth," Hazel said as she walked away toward the gym.  "She's so sweet," Percy thought aloud.  "I know right," Leo replied, "Frank seems so happy to be around her.  It's like her happiness is contagious or something."  "And she's a really good cook," Annabeth said.  "Well, how would you know that?" Percy asked.  "We have culinary arts together," Annabeth answered.  Sometimes Percy forgot that Annabeth and him sometimes had different classes.  Maybe that explained why geometry was always boring, because Annabeth wasn't there.

* * *

 

"How much are you willing to bet that Mrs. Greene fell off a ladder again?" Jason said from next to Percy as they walked to first period.  "I'd say $10," Percy said.  "Not much of a risk-taker, are you?" Jason teased.  "I prefer to stay out of trouble," Percy replied.  "I'm very concerned about the again part of your statement, Jason," Annabeth said from Percy's other side.  "Oh, Mrs. Greene's almost never here," Jason explained, "because one time she said she fell off a ladder."  "Well, that explains why I've been here almost a week and I haven't even met my AP psych teacher yet," Annabeth said.  "Yeah, that is problematic," Jason said.  "But I'll bet you $20 she's not here!" Annabeth declared.  Jason almost stopped in the middle of the hallway in shock about Annabeth's statement.  Not even Percy thought she'd be much of a risk-taker.  But, she did look like she could take a challenge.  "Deal," Jason said, holding out his hand for Annabeth to shake.  She shook Jason's hand, and Annabeth looked at Percy like she just knew she was going to win.

* * *

 

It turned out she did win, and AP psych went on as usual with a substitute.  Jason left the classroom much grumpier and $20 poorer than when he walked in.  And Percy got a high-five from Annabeth.  For once he headed toward geometry in a good mood.  But it was ruined once Mr. Brzezicki started teaching.

"Percy," Malcolm said, tapping him on the shoulder, "you're drowsing again."  "I am?" Percy said, disbelieving.  "Yeah, you close your eyes a little and start to slump, then jolt back up two seconds later like nothing happened," Malcolm explained.  "Maybe it's because I'm not drinking enough coffee in the morning," Percy yawned.  "I don't drink coffee at all," Malcolm said, then returned to working out the math problem in front of him.

After geometry was Spanish, which Percy looked forward to because 1. he had it with Annabeth, and 2. he also had it with Piper and Nico.  They all sat in the back of the room and had a mini contest to see who could write the most ridiculous sentences in Spanish.  If the teacher caught them (which was very rarely) she'd be very confused as to why they were writing things like, "I had loved eating Chinese food in the light of the moon for 800 years."  The loser of their "contest" had to judge the next winner and loser.  It was fun because Nico often cheated and wrote in Italian, and also because whomever won the most in a week got taken out to Taco Bell and the person who lost the most had to pay for it.  And besides, one of the rules was no translating, so they had to use whatever they knew, so it wasn't exactly harmful to the learning experience.

They explained the rules of the game to Annabeth, who'd actually be participating this week.  "Better stock up on those coupons and gift cards," Nico said, nudging her on the shoulder.  "And don't cheat by writing in Polish or using Google Translate," Piper added, then looked at Nico and said, "we'll find out."  They commenced the game as soon as the bell rang and the teacher started talking about compound tenses.  As soon as Percy was done writing his first weird sentence, he looked over to Annabeth, who had almost an entire paragraph written on her paper.  She handed it to Nico, who was judging, and he looked incredulously at the paper and said, "Annabeth, this starts in Spanish and ends in French."  "Oops," Annabeth said.  "I'll let you off the hook just this once," Piper said, "because luckily for you, I understand French."  "Other than that little mishap, Annabeth's sentence is pretty weird," Nico said.  "I suppose the addition of a second language does add to the weirdness," Percy added.  "Don't encourage her," Piper said, smacking Percy's shoulder.  "You can't stop me, Piper," Annabeth said, "I took $20 from your boyfriend first period."  "He probably deserved it," Piper said, "he's always making stupid bets that blow up in his face."  "Don't encourage her," Percy said, smacking Piper's shoulder.

* * *

 

"You got Hazel's phone number?" Leo asked Frank during lunch.  "Yeah, she gave me hers and told me to text her after the carnival," Frank said, blushing.  "So," Percy said after swallowing a bite of his sandwich, "did you text her yet?"  "Of course I did," Frank said.  "Bro, do you have her snapchat yet?" Leo said.  "I didn't ask her for her snapchat," Frank replied.  "It's easy, just go to add friends and her snapcode should pop up," Leo said, reaching across the table for Frank's phone.  While Leo continued trying to offer Frank "relationship advice", Percy decided to talk to Nico.  "So, how was Bianca's art show?" Percy asked.  "It was pretty cool," Nico said, "her piece was really good."  "What did the piece look like?" Annabeth asked.  "I have a picture of it on my phone," Nico said.  She looked at Nico's picture for a minute before smiling.  "It's pretty good," Annabeth said.  "She worked very hard on it," Nico agreed.  "Yeah, she sure did," Will said, from behind Nico as he wrapped his arms around him.

"Anyone want to go to Ristorante Vargas tonight?" Piper said.  "No thanks, I'm booked," Nico said.  "Same here," Will said.  The rest of the table responded with "Nos" and Piper sighed, "Guess I'll just go with Jason and Reyna then."  "Tell Lovi and Feli I said hello," Nico said, leaning back against Will.  "I'll probably forget to," Piper said.


End file.
